by Clay Moore
“Amarantha, could you snap it up. I’m crouched down, and I have a bare patch on my left ankle.”
“Very well, this a rough estimate. The picture you sent correlated with all known pictures of Anton Hecton at 88.3245%.”
Brian stood up and took off his helmet. He made sure that the visor that was lowered could not be discerned. Brian handed his helmet to the back seaters. They put it in its place, He drove out of the Marketplace.
“About 90 miles away is an oasis that has a four-star hotel. There is room in the normal apportionment.”
“Make the reservation.”
“Done. I’ll send the reservation code to your Slate as usual. This hotel will issue your room cards with active Keysecure technology. You won’t need to insert the cards.”
“Thank god. No more of those wristbands.”
Ofana looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. “Why do you hate those wrist bands?”
“They usually have an intense color. That tells brigands that you are staying at a hotel. The type of wristband tells the bandits which hotel you are staying in. They can figure out what you are worth. Then they kidnap you.”
“My guard used to say that no one wanted to kidnap me. I was more trouble than I was worth.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Worthless.”
“A guard has no right to an opinion than any employee. His job is to keep you safe, not heap scorn on his charge. I hope he lost his job?”
“He no longer guarded me. I could not find him in the palace.”
“He was fired with a bad reference. The guards since then kept their traps shut, right?”
“Yes, although as I matured, I got a female guard. Sometimes she would engage with me, and sometimes she would not engage with me.?
“That’s the new thought in guarding. Bodyguards want to get to know the Bodyguard charge better. When in public or outside, they are supposed to be all business. I don’t know if I like that.”
“Even guards have differences of opinion about how best to guard someone.”
“My strategy is to prevent the hard shot by shooting them first.”
“I like that strategy. Implement it at once.”
“Did you hear that team? See a gun. Shoot the assassin. Person nearest to Ofana moves her out of the line of fire.”
The team all nodded their heads. Only Jasmine stayed aloof from talking about shoot people who wanted to kill Ofana. She looked up and saw Brian’s eyes on her. His eyes were not friendly towards her as they once had been.
She did not think that her cover was blown. People tend to act first when they were sure that you were working as a spy. Those times usually end with you in Prison, where the government extracts the information. Then they execute you for being a failed spy. If they were unsure of you, they would watch you incessantly. She put Brian in the watching incessantly group. Ofana’s team must not know. Knowing them, if they knew she was a spy spying on them, they would have killed Jasmine and hang Brian’s authority.
Jasmine thought to herself: How can he drive and keep watching me?
Ofana had seen that look before on Brian. Brian was available, and so a couple of Special Agents were added to her father’s entourage. They were not traditional guards. They floated around, showing off the expensive grey suits, Then someone extended a gun. The crowd managed to get the gun from the assailant, and Brian stood still. The would-be assassin started running. Like a Greyhound, he took off after the assailant followed closely behind by the other Special Agent. When they came to the crowd, Brian vaulted the group using his hand on a person’s head to keep him above them. Then he hit the ground, eating up distance to the assassin.
The Ofana learned that the second assassin was being chased by the first Special Agent and Brian’s recruiter. Brian finally reached a point that he knew he could hit the killer. He stopped and aimed. Brian normally would hit center mass. But he wanted the assassin alive, and He aimed a little lower and shot. The killer took a hit in the leg. He collapsed. Dan was now over the man with his gun pointed at him.
Both Special Agents went over the pockets and put the contents in a plastic bag. They departed in an assault shuttle with the assassin.
Her father returned from watching the interrogation. He came into her room that was her office as Ofana. Her father was pale. Ofana was afraid her father was going to throw up. She went with a wastepaper basket and a pat on his back.
“How was it father,” she asked?
“When they tell you that it is going to be bad, believe them. These Special Agents do not like to wait for an answer. They operate directly. The black haired one had a pair of weighted gloves, and He hit the man in the face. Then he hit the man’s wound. That got nothing. The balding man took a needle and stuck it into the man’s arm. Five minutes later, he was giving up all the information. Our Police are rounding up the rest of his cell. They were telling jokes as he was beating the man.”
“Sometimes that is used as an emotional counter to what they do. That is what my Psychology tutor says.”
She looked at Brian now. If anything his features were even more finely etched. She had seen him mad before, and She witnessed the interrogation technique. It was bloody. The kicker was the drug he administered. He simply said that the interrogation drug worked better with pain. Sometimes they got the information from the beating. They still used the drug to verify the information.
It was an insight into Brian’s world. She much preferred her own. He may fight the enemies of her homeworld, but she fought the enemies of her hair.
Brian did not like harboring a mole in his team. What bothered him was that she was a mole inside the Eridani Secret Service, as well. That was how Jasmine first wormed her way into the team. Apparently, she was here to pick up information for the Eridani Secret Service, What if she was here for a different purpose. Who could afford an Eridani turncoat? That lead him straight to Planetary Interests and Anton Hecton. Could she have been brought here to do something like handling a nuke? He couldn’t ask Amarantha to search for her curriculum vitae while she was listening. He would have to do that at the next break.
According to Ofana, their next contact was a grav-rodder club. From what she said, this might actually be a real grav-rod club. A grav-rod was what one Pundit called “Riding a Radamite jet engine by the seat of your pants.” Brian liked to fly with his grav-rod. The only problem is riding into a thunderstorm. Since Radamite jets do not need aspirate, you cannot flame out by ingesting too much water. The problem he has in that situation was the high gusts of wind. Which is why he rides his Aponte everywhere. He can ride out storms by either flying above them, or by flying out of them.
Brian stopped his car when he saw a cloud of dust coming his way. He took his Athro and made ready. As the shadow got closer, he saw that they were grav-rods. A few of them had women drivers and women passengers. They were slowing down. Brian had enough of grav-rodders acting tough. At the right distance, he fired an entire magazine in front of the group.
Someone in the group made a quick move, and Three of the team ducked out of the two windows and the skylight in the roof. Three of them had the same ugly weapon as Brian.
“What are you here for,” asked Brian?
“What are you here for?”
Ofana heard it. The defiance in his voice told her that he was approaching his mental and physical limit. From what she heard from her father, most of the missions had been completed in three or four days. Brian had been on this mission for four days, and She grabbed her pistol from her wrist sheath. Ofana stepped out on the road. She heard someone exit the car. She looked as she saw Luana leaning out of the car window.
“Is this the way one greets guests?”
“This is the grav-rodder way.”
“To scare someone who comes in peace. You activated my guard; he is not likely to back down. He may even decide that there are too many of you as it is and cut you down to size. Oh, did I forget to mention that
he is a Special Agent of the Eridani Secret Service.”
“Weapons down, you fools. Remember, this one got Rembec.”
It took him a few more epithets before he got them in line. “We are no longer menacing, missy. Call off your guard dogs.”
Brian looked at Ofana. She nodded at him. He turned to the car and made the hand signal to stand down. Then he turned around to face the grav-rodders. As he scanned the rodders, he noticed that they did not follow the rodder tradition of black leathers. They wore clothes of all colors. Some wore chaps and bandanas around their noses and mouth. The leader himself looked more like a caricature of a tough Grav-rodder leader. His clothes were yellow ribbon starting at the neck and gathered in the crotch.
“I know that you are here for a talk. We’d like to know what you want us to do for you.”
“Do we have to talk here under the sun?”
“No, we don’t. We have a warehouse. We are comfortable there. Me and the bravos will hear what you say.
The woman sitting behind him whispered something in his ear.
“Maggie reminds me that I forgot to introduce myself. I am Von Ribbon.”
“I am called Ofana. My attack dog is called Brian Butler.”
“Word of your prowess has preceded you, sir.”
Maggie bent to his ear. “Maggie wants to know if Brian is taken for a mate.”
“Brian is a free agent.”
“Let’s ride to the warehouse.”
As Brian walked to the Blue grav-car, he caught Maggie blowing him a kiss. Brian decided to play a little with Maggie. She was the best looking Giesling woman. She obviously does not work in any of the mines, or another work requiring a lot of time in the sun. Maggie smiled.
Brian sat in the car. Ofana glared at Brian. “What was that?”
“If I am not mistaken, I am going to be intimately introduced to Maggie.”
“That means you are going to have sex with her..”
“We are not an item anymore. We have sex because it has become a habit. It might be that Maggie is someone to cultivate. Did you see how she could whisper into his ear? I bet you she runs the place.”
“So you’re not having sex with her, just cultivating her. Is that what you were doing cultivating me ?”
“You know the truth of the matter. Your father and my Boss have said to stop fraternizing with you. I think your father has great plans for you, and it’s not being my wife.”
“What plans?”
“We talked about this before. I think the Emir was you to be his special Agent, also known as Ambassador Plenipotentiary. That’s a gig with a high salary, maybe get a ship like mine.”
“I’ve never been in any of the ships.”
“When we go home, I will show you every nook and cranny if that’s what you want. I have most of the entertainment channels.”
“I truly can’t wait.”
Brian gave her a nervous smile.
“It was suggested to me that getting Von Ribbon to come over to our side would help. Do you think we should stop? We could drive right past them.”
“You want me to outrun a pack of grav-rods, They are going to chase us. And I guarantee you they will catch us. Even if I flew, they would outspeed us. It’s something called power to weight ratio.”
“Okay, we will be nice.”
“Think of this,” said Brian, “as if this were a speech. He wants to be convinced. Once he is convinced, his followers will follow the course.”
“Okay, Thank you.”
A group of five grav-rodders was showing where they should park. Brian was surprised to see most of the grav-rods parked outside under the sun. They brought their weapons. When one of the grav-rodders tried to take away her gun, Luana gave the grav-rodder a swift upper cur with the firearm. Then she kicked him in the balls with a snap kick.
The crowd was entertained not angered by the team bringing in weapons. In fact, the idiot that tried to take a gun from Luana was losing face with the group.
In a throne made up of grav-rod parts sat Von Ribbon. He waved Ofana into the intimate circle near his throne. He stood up and raised his hands. It took a few moments, but the silence was achieved. Brian was in awe that a comic character could wield such authority. Von probably made promises and kept them.
“Why are you here, Ofana?”
“I seek your assistance. Our Coalition is trying to get many like-minded members, like you, for positions in the new government.”
“What makes you say that they will give over power,”
“One power would be Eridani. Unless Miner’s Guild turns over the government to the elected, Eridani will impound Giesling’s gold reserves. For all intents and purposes, the Giesling scrip would be worthless.”
“That would bring the Mincer’s guild down in a hurry.”
“Then Eridani gives us a piece of paper, and we have to live how that paper says,”
“That would be dumb of us. We don’t care how you run your planet. All we care about is your membership in the Eridani Alliance.”
“What’s it going to cost us.”
“Nothing, unless you mean the cost of things that a planet needs to invest in. Things like ground forces, Navy, and a police force to enforce your laws,”
“No money goes to Eridani?”
“Only what you buy from our merchants.”
“Hey, we pay for what we buy!”
There was a deep chuckle from the seated gang.
“What you say is what needs to be done, but why?”
A quick look around told her that this one question held them.
“I have serious doubts about the Miner’s Guild. Yes, they put in their contract for Giesling that they would release the power to a fairly elected government. Some of the parties are blinds for the Miners Guild. They will be returned to power, and no one will be the wiser. The Miner’s Guild will have been reelected by a wide margin. My Coalition finds these blinds and outs them for what they are.”
Von Ribbon was deep in thought when Maggie whispered in Von Ribbon’s ear. He looked around for Special Agent Brian. He smiled at Brian Butler.
“Special Agent Brian Butler, Maggie asks if she may politely jump your bones.”
Maggie swatted Von Ribbon. “Okay, okay. Maggie asks if you would take some refreshment in her particular area.
“I would be happy too.”
Brian stood up. His left ankle gave him a twinge. He gave Ofana his Athro sub-assault weapon. Then he went with Maggie
There were tents and other things to shelter one from prying eyes. He guessed that when one noisy couple started the whole gang to making love.
Maggie started removing her clothing. “Quickly, now, Von Ribbon lets me have other men, but not for a long time.”
Brian got the message. He stripped off his clothing. When Maggie caught sight of what Brian was packing, She left, and then returned slower.
She said: “I told him that you were as blessed as we heard. He let me take my time.”
Maggie was a thin woman with a pale complexion. Her breasts were compact. Brian could cup one of her breasts in his hand, and it would not fill up his hand. She used a set of tweezers, and she removed every hair from her pudenda.
Removing hair from their nether was not the fashion among the ladies of most of the worlds. Everybody seemed so repressed about sex. Brian figured that it had to be the ameurgen. If you knew that you could not get pregnant, or cause a pregnancy, you tended to be open to opportunities to exercise the passion a little.
It took her an hour to get what Brian offered in the way of the lovemaking art. She was so used to having to be quick about it that she had Brian popping earlier than he was usual.
Brian knew that he was dismissed. He put on his clothes and walked out of her area, and Brian walked back to the audience section. Before Brian entered, Brian stopped and composed himself. A few deep breaths brought him some measure of calm, and He walked toward Ofana. She handed up Brian’s weapon. He took it. Then
he sat down.
Ofana leaned into him and said: “How was it?”
“She has no art. No one has taught her. I felt like I was a prize Hornbull covering a Horncow.”
Ofana tried to stifle a giggle.
“Please share the humor?” Von Ribbon asked.
“I can’t,” said Ofana. “It contains some disparaging remarks about my Guardian here.”
“Please share them with us?”
“Is Maggie back with us?” asked Ofana.
“No,” said Von.
“He has commented that Maggie has no training in the sexual arts. He likened having sex with her as being a Prize Hornbull covering a Horncow. You can think of it as being over too fast for him.”
Von looked like he was parsing the statement finally his face relaxed into a smile. “I think that we will keep that from Maggie,” said Von Ribbon. “Among us, she might be considered the master in the sexual arts.”
A very rough cough announced Maggie’s return to the audience. Von Ribbon helped her onto her pillow behind him.
“Welcome back, Maggie. How was it?”
“He is as rumored. One might say awesomely built.”
Ofana hid her face. Her first time with Brian was one of reflection. The question was, did you go back for seconds. Her sociology tutor talked about the ameurgen and how it changed relationships between man and woman. Both sides were now on the hunt. The attitude of the ladies who were asked to be the fox showed just how much equality women had achieved. They accepted without any reservations. Ten years earlier, they could not trust the hormone-based contraceptive. With Ameurgen they could trust the contraceptive and so for ten years now it was like children in the candy store.
Sexual practices of other cultures were tried, and some were adopted. What the Emir wanted was more ecumenism among the religions. Sex provided the movement. Within a couple of years, The religions were talking about the government and not about destroying each other.
“I can concur with her,” said Ofana. “Brian is awesomely built, as Maggie claims.”
“You were here to solicit my help. How can I help?”
“Run as a member of the Hall. In fact, run a whole slate. If you have to speak, follow my lead.” Ofana reached into her net bag, and She pulled out a bundle of printed paper. She gave him the sheets. He looked at them and smiled.
